By the end of 2026, there will be around 150 million 5G subscriptions in Middle East and North Africa

By : Basel Khaled – Ahmed Helmy

Ericsson has recently unveiled two reports: Ericsson Mobility report and The future urban reality report, that together, forecast the post-pandemic world and the future of 5G in Egypt and around the world.

The Future Urban Reality is an Ericsson ConsumerLab report and is Ericsson’s largest consumer study to date, revealing key insights about what Egyptian consumers believe will happen beyond the COVID-19 pandemic to the year 2025 through surveying a sample of over 1,000 respondents with an age range of 15–79. The report predicts that consumers in Egypt will not only continue to manage routine activities - such as remote work, e-learning, e-health, and online grocery shopping - online but will also add 8 hours per week of online time, and 3.4 more services to their daily online activities by 2025.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of online education at schools and universities as well as remote working has increased. Going forward online education is expected to remain at a level of 50 percent while consumers expect to keep working remotely at 40 percent of their working hours.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of online shopping stood at 34 percent out of the total number of all shopping events, both online and at physical stores. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this figure increased to 53 percent. Consumers anticipate their habits around online shopping will remain at a level of 42 percent after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed.

Ericsson projects that 5G mobile subscriptions will exceed 580 million by the end of 2021, driven by an estimated one million new 5G mobile subscriptions every day. The forecast, which features in the twentieth edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, enhances the expectation that 5G will become the fastest adopted mobile generation. 5G is expected to surpass a billion subscriptions two years ahead of the 4G LTE timeline for the same milestone.

The report features breakout statistics from the Middle East and North Africa markets where around 32 percent of mobile subscriptions were for 4G at the end of 2020. 5G subscriptions exceeded 1 million at the end of 2020. Significant 5G volumes are expected in 2021 and the region is likely to reach around 150 million 5G subscriptions in 2026.

Ibrahim Eldeftar, Head of Artificial Intelligence & Analytics at Ericsson Middle East and Africa says: “With the COVID-19 pandemic, Egypt has seen a change in the daily activities of its citizens, many of whom now rely on connectivity to study, work, or shop for groceries. The Middle East and North Africa region is expected to have the second highest mobile data growth rate by 2026. This is aligned with the prediction that the citizens of Egypt will continue their newly adopted online behaviors even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over. In line with Egypt Vision 2030 for digital transformation, mobile networks and digital inclusion will play a significant role in increasing resilience and competitiveness.”